Today's Article
Many powers,
including the Bush
Administration and
Saudi Arabia, are
pushing their will
onto Iraq.
The American Spark
Why Should Bush Single Out Iran?

By Cliff Montgomery - Feb. 16th, 2007

The issue of the moment may be the sudden increase in
White House rhetoric about Iran and its supposed influence on
Iraq. But as an eye-opening Jan. 12th Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the Iraq region reveals, Iran's
influence may be great, but it's hardly the only
Gulf state which may be getting involved in the Iraq mess.

We've sampled some of the main points of the CRS report below:

"Principal current concerns [which are]...relevant to members of the 110th Congress...include alleged Iranian political,
financial, and military support for various Iraqi
Shiite political parties and militia groups...

"Iraq and other regional security problems, such as the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the enduring threat of transnational
terrorism, Iran’s nuclear program, and the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon, are becoming increasingly intertwined.
Some observers believe that, in order for the
United States and its allies to reach a sustainable reconciliation and find a
lasting solution in Iraq, related regional crises also must be addressed.

"Others contend that lasting resolutions to these problems can only be secured according to their own time-lines and that
efforts to link them to the stabilization of Iraq are unlikely to produce desirable results.

"The
Iraq Study Group and other have argued that if Iraqis are unable to resolve their differences and rein in armed
groups, then Iraq could continue to descend into violence, and Iraq’s neighbors might intervene to defend their perceived
national interests.

Political Stability

"The removal of the Saddam Hussein regime upset the tenuous political and economic balance that had existed in the
Persian Gulf region since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. In political and military terms, the regime’s fall and the
subsequent dismantling of Iraq’s armed forces removed a potential military threat to the Arab Gulf states but also eliminated
the region’s principal strategic counterweight to Iran.

"Subsequent elections have installed a Shiite-dominated government, some of whose members are friendly to Iranian
interests.

Sectarian-Ethnic Violence

"The hardening of sectarian and ethnic identities in Iraq has created significant anxiety among Iraq’s neighbors, many of
whom also have religiously and ethnically diverse populations.

"
Sunni Arab governments and religious figures have characterized the empowerment of Iraq’s Shiite Arabs and close
relationships between the Iranian government and some Iraqi and non-Iraqi Shiite political parties and armed groups as
evidence of an emerging and potentially hostile 'Shiite crescent'. Sunni Arabs in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt also have
accused Iraqi Shiite militia groups and Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces of targeting Sunni Arab civilians.

"Similarly, Shiites outside of Iraq have expressed alarm about the targeting of Iraqi Shiite civilians by Sunni Arab-led
insurgent and terrorist groups and the potential for Sunni Arab-led governments to intervene in Iraqi affairs to the detriment
of Iraqi Shiites.

"
Turkish concerns about Kurdish separatism and the fate of Iraq’s ethnically-Turkish Turkoman minority group are well
documented and drive Turkish policy regarding Iraq.

"The post-Saddam strengthening of Iraqi Shiite political parties and the Shiite
hawza, or religious establishment in An Najaf
also have regional implications. Both phenomena contribute to concern in
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain that indigenous
Shiite Arabs may become more politically active or hostile, based on the example of Iraq’s empowered Shiite population or
in response to future pronouncements from Iraq-based clerics.

Continued Insurgency and Disorder?

"From mid-2003 through early 2006, the foremost concerns of U.S. policymakers...the new Iraqi government...[and]
regional policy makers...were the Sunni-led insurgency against coalition and Iraqi forces, the presence of foreign terrorist
operatives in Iraq, and the growth of organized criminal activity such as kidnapping, extortion, and drug trafficking.

"Iran and
Turkey have engaged directly with Iraq’s Kurdish and Shiite Arab populations, respectively, in order to secure
their interests and guard against some of the potentially negative implications of these problems. However, Iran’s
intervention on behalf of Iraq’s Shiites may be contributing to the persistence of Sunni-led resistance activities, and Iraq’s
Kurds remain wary of Turkish intentions.

"In much of the Arab world, governments and citizens remain divided on the question of whether the
U.S. military presence
in Iraq is an ultimately stabilizing or aggravating factor. Most Arab governments fear a general failure of the new Iraqi
government and the prospect of chaos that could leave Iraq’s minority Sunni Arab population vulnerable or create
opportunities for terrorist elements to prosper.

"Many Arab citizens oppose the continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq, and some view the current Iraqi government as an
illegitimate outgrowth of U.S. occupation. Reconciling these differences of opinion is likely to remain difficult and could
complicate efforts to secure the cooperation of Iraq’s Arab neighbors with new stabilization initiatives."